Big Three will take a seat

PHOENIX — Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has made the call. His Big Three will not play in either of the team’s final two regular-season games.

Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili all made the trip to Phoenix for the start of a season-ending back-to-back that begins tonight against the Suns and concludes Thursday at Golden State.

But they will not play in either game, Popovich told the Express-News after shootaround this morning at the U.S. Airways Center.

With the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed already wrapped up, and the possibility of a grueling April schedule giving way to a playoff slate that could begin as soon as Saturday, Popovich has opted to keep his three top scorers under wraps until Game 1.

“It’s doesn’t make any sense to play them,” Popovich said.

It is a move sure to cause executives at ESPN and TNT, which are broadcasting the Spurs’ final two games, to reach for the arsenic. But it is one Popovich believes the lockout-compacted schedule, combined with a quick turnaround for the start of the playoffs, has made necessary.

The Spurs are in the midst of a final push that includes 8 games in the season’s final 11 nights, including four in the final five. Popovich’s aim is to keep his most important players fresh — and above all, given the way Ginobili’s regular season ended last year, out of harm’s way — until the playoffs begin.

Complicating matters, the Spurs won’t know when that is until the NBA sets the postseason schedule Thursday night.

It is possible the Spurs are forced to fly from the Bay Area on Friday morning, cross two time zones on the way back to San Antonio, then play Game 1 of the playoffs Saturday. It is also possible the Spurs open Sunday, clearly the more palatable of the two options.

If it’s Saturday, the Spurs — who would face either Utah or Denver in the first round — would not be able to hold a practice between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

“Everything’s based on when we play, and we won’t know until Thursday night,” Popovich said. “We can’t plan the weekend.”

Team officials are hopeful the NBA will take into account the Spurs’ brutal season-ending travel itinerary when consulting with its television partners on a first-round schedule, but concede they have no control over what the league decides.

Thirteen of the 16 teams in the playoff field finish the regular-season on Thursday, and six of those finish with back-to-backs. The Spurs are the only team in that group that must also travel east through two time zones to begin the playoffs.

On a conference call Wednesday, commissioner David Stern said that — while there are several balls to juggle in setting a playoff schedule, including arena availability — the NBA would take travel concerns of the Spurs and other teams into consideration, if possible.

“You can’t politic for that sort of thing,” Popovich said. “When they tell you to play, you go play.”

Sewing up the top seed with Monday’s win over Portland at least offered Popovich the flexibility to sit whoever he wanted against Phoenix and Golden State.

At 48-16, the Spurs are still tied with Chicago for the best overall record in the league, with the Bulls owning tiebreaker, but Popovich made clear finishing with homecourt immunity against a potential Finals opponent was less important to him than keeping key players upright.

“I opt for health,” he said. “Our health is more important than the final record.”

Surely factoring into the decision was what happened last season, when Ginobili fractured his elbow on the final day of the regular season in Phoenix and was unavailable for the start of a first-round series with Memphis four days later.

With his Big Three ruled out for the final two games of this season, Popovich took the extraordinary step of pushing his team through a 90-minute, full-scale practice Wednesday morning instead of normal light walk-through.

It was his way of keeping players in a rhythm, even if some of them aren’t going to play for the next several days.

The workout at U.S. Airways Center, completed about eight hours before tipoff against the Suns, was spirited enough that Parker finished it with his right knee wrapped in ice and both feet plunked in an ice bath.

“This was like our game,” Popovich said. “We didn’t post defense. We scrimmaged. We did defensive drills. We worked harder than probably we would in a game.”

Based on Popovich’s decision, it will be the most sweat his Big Three exert until the start of the playoffs.

“You just have to go day-to-day, and do what you think his best. There’s really no right or wrong decision. You just get a feel, talk to your players and do what you can do.”